Of the Skull and the Seashore
by Yidkirkin of the Warhammer
Summary: Edward left her, and Bella's entire world turned on its side. But unbeknownst to her, Charlie had been worrying about things that had never even crossed Bella's mind during her relationship with the vampire. Will she be able to keep her promise to Charlie about forgetting Edward? But more importantly, move on and build a new life for herself? Anti Bella/Edward. Attempt at romance.
1. Chapter 1

**Of the Skull and the Seashore**

By: Yidkirkin of the Warhammer

Oh no, a new fic! Only the first chapter and then it will be on the same schedule as my other fics.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

So... this one's going to be odd.

WELP, FRANCHISE EVERYONE KNOWS, FRANCHISE NO ONE CARES ABOUT: SPOILERS?

Vvv

"Is it true?" Charlie whispered. "Did they leave?"

Bella was curled up on the living room couch, a quilt draped over her legs and tightly hugging her upper arms. She was awake, could hear her father and the doctor talking a dozen feet away, but to her it was as if her mind was covered by a blanket of muffling cotton. Because Edward; her boyfriend, her love, her whole world really, was gone from her life now. Bella knew that he wouldn't ever come back, he loved her too much to put her in danger, but she didn't want to understand his actions right now. The gaping hole that had opened in her heart was stopping her from thinking, keeping her anguish inside her and with each passing second her depression was already growing. It was only after Charlie spoke, voice so far away but a beacon when he mentioned the Cullens that Bella didn't have to strain to hear, because she was focused on every word.

"Dr. Cullen asked us not to say anything." Dr. Gerandy answered. "The offer was very sudden; they had to choose immediately. Carlisle didn't want to make a big production out of leaving."

"A little warning might have been nice." Charlie grumbled.

Dr. Gerandy sounded uncomfortable when he replied. "Yes, well, in this situation, some warning might have been called for."

And then Bella didn't want to listen anymore; she had already heard all that she needed to. Edward and the rest of his family had moved away from Forks entirely, and now there was never going back to the way things had been just a few short weeks ago. She discretely reached out to feel around for the edge of her quilt, pulling it over her ear to try and block out the conversation. But then her father and the doctor began to speak louder, probably convinced that she was fast asleep, and for all that she tried to Bella was unable to ignore their voices.

"I don't like it." Charlie continued. "I don't like any of it. I've had my suspicions ever since she started dating that boy out of the blue, but this cinches it. Do you remember a few months ago when Bella went back to Phoenix? Few days after she leaves, I get a call from Carlisle telling me that Bella fell down a flight of stairs and through a window. At _Edward's_ hotel in _Phoenix._ "

"Do you think she's been abused?" Dr. Gerandy asked seriously. Inwardly, Bella wanted to jump up to say something, but she didn't; she was too shocked that the doctor would even _think_ something like that. After all, Edward loved her and she loved him back, there was no way he would ever-

"It was her birthday three days ago, her _eighteenth_ _birthday_. She was in the fetal position in those woods, Sam said. He said she was so out of it she could barely take his hand." Bella stayed silent, the strain in Charlie's voice unlike anything she had ever heard before. "I've seen it before, men who stay with their girlfriends until they're of age, have sex with them and then leave them in the dirt. What if that Cullen boy did that to _my little girl_?"

Bella's face screwed up as she tried to refrain from crying; was that really how Charlie saw Edward's relationship with her?

"...Do you want me to run a rape kit?" Dr. Gerandy asked, so quietly that Bella almost didn't catch what he said. Several long, silent minutes passed, and then a sob reached Bella's ears; her father was crying, and as the man dissolved into quiet hiccups Bella found that she had begun to cry as well. She removed the quilt from her body and surged off the couch so quickly that Dr. Gerandy jumped and Charlie barely had enough time to catch her before she flung her arms around his neck.

"E-Edward didn't d-do anything to me!" Bella said swiftly, clutching at the back of her father's shirt so tightly that her knuckles turned white. "We never ha-had sex, Edwa-Edward didn't want to! He-He just- He just said he couldn't b-be with me anymore! He just _left_!" Bella broke down into helpless tears and Charlie hurriedly cradled her head, wrapping his free arm around her waist to rub circles into her lower back.

"I l-love him but he d-d-doesn't-t want to be with me! I-I don't know what to do... I just f-feel so awful and I don't know what to do!"

"Shh... Bella, you'll be okay, shh..." Charlie soothed, ignoring the wet patch beginning to stain his shoulder. Dr. Gerandy sat back down in one of the armchairs and pulled out a handkerchief, and when Bella stopped crying a few minutes later Charlie used it to wipe her tears away.

"David, can you see the volunteers off? Tell them I'm incredibly grateful for their help." Charlie said this as he rocked Bella back and forth, and then in a softer voice he added, "I'll call you if we need anything else."

"Of course, Charlie." Bella heard the man exit the room, leaving her alone with her father, the murmurs from the next room over being all that distracted her from the crushing silence.

"I'm sorry I woke you up, honey."

Bella hiccupped and felt a lump form in her throat again, but she was already tired of crying. "Is that what it-it looks like, when I'm with Edward? Like I'm being abused?"

Charlie was quiet for a long time, and in that time Bella felt as if she was being tortured, both from the wait for her father's answer and from the ever present fact that Edward had _left_ her. She wanted so badly to run away from it all, up to her room and under the covers and sleep until her pain was gone... but she also wanted to hear what her father had to say. Bella had never seen her father in such straits before, and that she was the cause of it made her feel like utter garbage.

"I never believed that you fell down a flight of stairs and through a window." Charlie stated, not missing his daughter's flinch. "When we formed the search party to find you, I tried calling the Cullen's; _surely_ they would want to help. But to my surprise, they didn't answer, and soon enough I was told that they had left town altogether. I was worried sick, terrified that I would go to the station and be pulled away for a body ID..."

"Dad..." Bella's tears had resurfaced as she listened to Charlie bear his fears to her. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry I scared you..."

"You did nothing wrong." Charlie sounded so adamant that for a moment Bella believed him. "You are _not_ at fault for anything he did."

"I just want everything to be okay again." Bella whispered, unable to get anything else past the tightening of her throat. _I want everything to go back to the way it was before this._

"Then forget about Edward." Charlie said immediately, desperately, and though Bella's first reaction was to refuse –she would never forget the love of her life –the look on Charlie's face made her pause. "I haven't seen you happy since before you came to Forks. That's all I ever want for you Bella, I just want you to be happy again."

 _But I was happy with Edward._ That sentence died before it reached her lips as Bella took in her father, pleading with her, shaken from the thought that she had died and that Edward had abused her, and all Bella could do in response was nod tearfully.

"I'll try. I promise, I'll try and forget about him." Bella said, and the sheer relief on Charlie's face made the festering despair in her chest a little easier to bear.

Vvv


	2. Chapter 2

**Of the Skull and the Seashore**

By: Yidkirkin of the Warhammer

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Huu huu huu, an update no one asked for! I really am in control of my own destiny! *chokes while laughing like the loser I am*

WELP, FRANCHISE EVERYONE KNOWS, FRANCHISE NO ONE CARES ABOUT SPOILERS?

October

During the first month since Edward had left, Bella found it incredibly difficult to keep herself going. Getting out of bed in the morning was by far the hardest part, as at least in her dreams she could retain some sort of semblance of peace. Once she was up and awake she lost that, along with any hope for the future she may have accumulated during the night.

Every class she attended was becoming increasingly tedious, and the fact that she had already learned 70% of the course content was making her ability to concentrate as dismal as it had ever gotten. She could barely muster up even an iota of enthusiasm for PhysEd, in Biology she kept expecting to see Edward in his usual seat beside her, and at lunch she almost always went without eating; the countless eyes trained on her back making her incredibly nervous.

Going home each day was her only respite, and it was the few hours in between arriving back home and going to sleep that really kept her going through those weeks. If she felt sick when turning to an empty seat, or nearly skipped school after another awful lunchtime, or pulled to the side of the road on the way back and cried her eyes out, it only took her a minute to remember that back home she only had to worry about herself and not anything else, and that would help immensely.

Charlie had been so supportive, through thick and thin and everything in between. Even with his position as Chief of Police, he had managed to get his evenings off so that he could spend time with her. Bella used her free time when he wasn't home to cook dinner every night, and once Charlie returned they would sit together on the couch, cover their legs with quilts and watch a movie while they ate. Bella had never felt so close to her father, and soon she was even buying groceries herself so that she could make foods they had never tried before.

Then, on the days that Charlie couldn't be home for dinner or until very late, Bella would cook her favourite foods for herself. She would curl up on the couch, put the food on the coffee table and play a sad or romantic movie, and then she would allow herself to cry some more. On those nights, Charlie would usually come back home to find Bella asleep on the sofa, a bag of soiled tissues beside her and a half eaten plate of cold food on the floor.

Bella woke up in her bed every morning and repeated the process again.

Bella was not happy in October, but this new, scary and challenging way of life was something she had committed herself to. By making that promise to her father, she had stopped herself from being consumed completely by despair. Sorrow would have been so much easier to handle, but it wasn't an option anymore; and by the end of the first month, Bella really did _want_ to be happy.

November

In the second month since Edward had been gone, Bella settled into her new routine with a sort of dull ache ever present in her chest. She was moving through life again, still hurting, still struggling to get out of bed every morning, but not as disillusioned with the everyday anymore.

Books were her solace now, and when she wasn't cooking, watching a movie with Charlie or trudging through her homework, she was sitting somewhere with her nose buried in a book. With the money her mother had sent her for her eighteenth birthday, Bella had gone into town to replenish her collection, and was quickly making her way through the school library as well. She stayed away from the vampire titles, of course, but quickly fell back into step with her old hobby.

It was a little odd to have so much time on her hands, when only a few weeks ago she had never seemed to have any time for herself after she and Edward went to their own homes for the day. Or at least, that's what came to her mind when she unearthed Pride and Prejudice from her closet, it being a book that she hadn't seen hide nor hair of since she started dating the vampire. She didn't dwell on it long though, not with the pain that resurfaced in her heart whenever she thought about her now ex-boyfriend. When Charlie returned home that night he found an even bigger spread than usual awaiting him; Bella had distracted herself with cooking a little _too_ well.

One night, with no Charlie to ground her, no books or movies that drew her interest and an easy box of Kraft Dinner on the stove, Bella called her mother. It was something she hadn't done in a while, and she knew it was long overdue when Renee sounded surprised to hear from her.

The two women talked about a lot of things; about Bella's classes, Phil's games, how Charlie was doing, how Renee was feeling about Jacksonville, and a little bit about Edward. Renee asked about college and Bella talked about visiting, and at the end of the long phone call Renee made her promise to call at least once a week, so that she could be sure that Bella was doing okay.

Now that she had two promises to keep, once for each of her parents, the ache in her heart remained but she tried to put some feeling into her tasks now. It was getting easier to put the Cullens out of her mind; she didn't need as many distractions as before and was able to spend a few hours alone without crying or feeling unwanted. Her mother and father both loved her and only wanted what was best for her and for her to be happy; that was enough for now.

In November, Bella still didn't feel happy; she felt settled, calmed down, and at the very least resigned to that fact that she had two people she couldn't disappoint no matter what. She wanted so very badly to overcome this, but it looked as if it was going to take a bit longer than two months for her to get there.


	3. Chapter 3

**Of the Skull and the Seashore**

By: Yidkirkin of the Warhammer

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

WELP, FRANCHISE EVERYONE KNOWS, FRANCHISE NO ONE CARES ABOUT SPOILERS?

December

December came, and with it snow and cold winds, an almost welcome reprieve from the rain and constant drizzle of before. Bella stayed indoors a lot of the time now, but instead of reading or watching movies she was reviewing for her midterms and researching prospective colleges and universities.

After her first call to Renee, Bella had thought long and hard about where she wanted to be in the future, since her mother had suggested taking her post-secondary in Jacksonville. Edward, and whatever would have come with him, was no longer her be-all-end-all, and despite the pain that thought conjured up even after so long, Bella knew that she had to accept it.

Her grades, after a brief dip, had returned to their impeccable standard, so Bella could potentially go into any career that she fancied, barring ones that required exceptional grace or physical prowess. Unfortunately that gave her far too many options when three months ago there had only been one, and even as she researched and researched –she didn't feel as if she was making any progress.

So one night, over a rare dinner sitting at the kitchen table, Bella brought the issue up with her father.

"Mom got me thinking about a career." Bella began, not paying much attention to the lasagne she was butchering beyond recognition. "I'm going to have to look at schools soon... I wanted to ask you what you think I should go for."

Her father was quiet, leisurely finishing his mouthful of pasta, and before he answered he took a short swig of his beer. "That's something you need to figure out on your own, Bells. But as a suggestion, start with what makes you happy, and if you can't do that, then go with what you're good at."

"Hm..." Bella's brow pinched; that hadn't been what she was looking for, but Charlie did have a point.

"Then again, maybe you should just become an officer like your old man." Charlie grinned at her and Bella snorted, but didn't dismiss it outright.

The topic wasn't brought up again, but her father's advice stayed with Bella all throughout her midterms. She really couldn't think of anything that she loved to do or that made her happy that she might want to do for a living. Reading and cooking were all she could come up with at all, and she wasn't about to become a chef; the hours alone would have killed her even if the job wasn't stressful as hell.

It wasn't until she received her marks on the last day of the term, just before an appointment with Tanner Dully, the guidance councillor, that an idea hit Bella like a ton of bricks.

"What career paths can I go down with good marks in English?" Mr. Dully looked momentarily surprised at her forwardness, but quickly recovered and asked for what her midterm marks were specifically. "Ninety-seven, and in my other subjects except PhysEd I got between eighty and eighty-seven." It would be better for everyone that she not mention her marks in PhysEd.

"Well, there are a _lot_ of options, Ms. Swan." Mr. Dully said, typing away at his computer absently. "With a Bachelor's degree in English, which can be acquired through most post-secondary schools, you could work in journalism, public relations, teaching either here or in a foreign country; in fact, many college programs only require a grade twelve English credit to start, like with chef training or environmental studies..."

"Can I have more information about teaching abroad?" Bella asked, the prospect of living and working somewhere far from the memories of Edward appealing to her immensely. The lack of a goal opened her up to new options, the loss of the person she had wanted to spend her life with making her want to run away; Bella still didn't like living in Forks despite the better relationship with her father, and she wanted to get out eventually. College was the best opportunity she had.

"Well, a lot of countries require at least a Bachelor's in some subject or another, and some cases where learning a new language has to be factored in they require a Masters. For instance, in France they have a tendency to favour those with experience rather than a certificate. Some people choose to take their post-secondary in the country they want to teach in, that way they can familiarize themselves before joining the workforce." Mr. Dully had continued to talk long after he stopped consulting the computer, and Bella wondered if he had been asked about this before. "Though some countries have different starting dates for the school year..."

Bella waited a few minutes, listening to Mr. Dully go on about the subject in great detail, before she interrupted. "Would you be able to print out some information on this?" Bella asked politely, patiently sitting while the councillor went to fetch them from the printer in another room. She was surprised to see that Mr. Dully had also included papers on several foreign scholarship opportunities, and she thanked the man profusely before leaving.

That day, Bella's mind was whirling with possibilities, options that had never occurred to her and a million ways to getto _anywhere else_. Charlie came home that night to a take-out dinner and a kitchen table strewn with papers both printed and hand written, Bella flushed with colour and typing away on the computer almost _excitedly_.

"Found something Bells?" Charlie asked, eyes amused and relieved as he helped himself to the lukewarm Chow Mein on the counter. When Bella launched into a faintly impassioned talk about foreign scholarships and English degrees, he grew a little sad that he would have to say goodbye to her again. But as long as it was what Bella wanted, which by the sound of it, it was, then he would set aside his sadness and do his best to support her.

In December, with the wind rattling the kitchen windows and eager planning talked out over Chinese food, Bella regained the spark that she had lost. Enthusiasm, for so long something that had eluded her, was now colouring her world again. She was healing all on her own, and the pain of abandonment that had been festering since Edward's departure, right at that moment, it lessened just a little bit. When her new dreams for education in England, France, Germany, Japan or Australia were sent out less than two weeks later, Bella's happiness grew ever so slightly.

January

On January ninth, after three weeks of anxious waiting and speculation, the two schools in France and one of the schools in Japan responded to her application. Charlie was there when she opened up the thin envelopes, and stayed for the inevitable tears that followed her rejection from all three. Bella hadn't quite been prepared for such an onslaught of disappointment, and was morose for the two days it took until another response reached her.

Bella opened the letter from the school in Germany by herself, not wanting her father to see her break down again if it came to that. Fortunately for the both of them, the school had accepted her along with a scholarship, something that Bella gleefully gushed about to Charlie as soon as he walked in the door that night.

On January fourteenth, the three schools that remained; one in Japan, one in England and one in Australia, all responded. The British school doled out another rejection, citing fully booked programs, but both of the other schools accepted her, with a scholarship each no less. This was more than satisfactory in Bella's mind, and that night she and her parents (Renee connected to them via Skype) sat at the table and worked through the pros and cons of each school.

The University of Griefswald had accepted her for two programs; the first being a German language immersion course that ran for two years, with the 'Teaching English as a Foreign Language' (TEFL) eleven week part time course running during the last half of her second year. The scholarship she had been given would cover the first year she spent there along with all her books, and after that she could be eligible for other scholarships. Griefswald had a smaller population of foreign students and was situated in a smaller sized city, which meant that the dorms were already full and she would have to rent. Bella liked the look of the place, and was even alright with having less English speakers around, but having to pay for her board along with whatever was left of the tuition wasn't as attractive.

Ibaraki University's College of Education, located in Yurikawa, had accepted her to their 'Accelerated Educator Training Course'. She would be in school for one year, simultaneously enrolled in a Japanese Language Immersion program and a TEFL course (that had been changed into a yearlong run with it's curriculum expanded to complement the Immersion program), and then she would have three terms as a Teaching Assistant. Each term would be in a different middle school either in Yurikawa or the nearby Toarushi, and depending on her fluency in the language another immersion course might be required for her to attend during those three terms. The school had no dorms, but had lists of rental recommendations available and her entire tuition and books would be paid for by the scholarship. Yurikawa was a town about the size of Forks with twice the population and infrastructure, but Japan's extensive railway system was a perk that Bella very much enjoyed the idea of.

Lastly, the University of Canberra had accepted her into their TEFL and English Major courses. She would take both simultaneously for two years and would then be apprenticing at a local international school for one year. Bella's scholarship would cover all her dorm residence fees as well as her first year of schooling, but she would have to buy her own books for both years. As well, Canberra was a large city, and the fact that Australia was a majorly English speaking country would make adapting to the place that much easier for her.

"What're you thinking right now, Bells?" Charlie asked as Bella reread their notes for the third time.

"All of them are nice." She said finally, carefully. "I like that at Ibaraki I won't have to worry about tuition, but Canberra has a dorm, and Griefswald is a smaller school with smaller class sizes."

"What _don't_ you like?" Renee's slightly garbled voice asked from the laptop screen. Charlie adjusted the speakers again in irritation at the poor quality.

Bella pondered that question for a minute. "Griefswald will be the most expensive, with travel, board and a year and a half of tuition to pay. Ibaraki doesn't have dorms. Canberra being in Australia means that once I get my TEFL certificate I'll probably have to move to get a job."

"Sounds like the only problem with Ibaraki is the living situation." Charlie said, pulling the acceptance letter out from under another stack of paper. "That one gives you more experience as opposed to class work... though out of the three Japan is the least safe for women to live in."

" _But_ Japan is also very modern, and has a booming women's rights movement. Both Japan and Germany are already countries that need these types of teachers." Renee threw in. "I don't think Canberra is the best for what you seem to have in mind, honey."

Bella looked at the Canberra letter on the table and then nodded once. "Yeah, I think so too. Okay, now it's between Ibaraki and Griefswald."

"Take your time." Charlie said as he got up to refill his mug. "Still have lots of time to make your decision, no need to rush."

"But..." Bella's brow furrowed and then smoothed. "Alright, I'll sleep on it. Over thinking things won't help me at all."


	4. Chapter 4

**Of the Skull and the Seashore**

By: Yidkirkin of the Warhammer

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

WELP, FRANCHISE EVERYONE KNOWS, FRANCHISE NO ONE CARES ABOUT SPOILERS?

And Onward

In the end, Bella had chosen to go with Ibaraki University, setting off a whirlwind of activity that barely slowed in the few months she had to get ready.

Bella had been accepted into the coming school year at Ibaraki, which meant that her classes started in April as opposed to September like she was used to. The rest of January was spent filling out and sending in all the required forms and papers; for classes, a student visa, accommodations, airplane tickets and a slew of other things that needed doing. Her final year of high school was therefore cut short, and around the beginning of February Charlie had agreed to allow her to stop attending altogether. When all the paperwork was filled out and she no longer had to go to school, Bella focused on other things she was interested in. She got a part time job at the public library with the help of her father, she studied and obsessed over the Rosetta Stone program that Phil had bought her as a going away present, and she spent a bit of time hanging out with Jacob whenever she had the chance. He was sad that she was leaving so soon after 'finally breaking up with Cullen', but was ultimately happy for her to a degree he hadn't expressed before. Admittedly, it stung a tad that he had needed to mention Edward, but Bella knew he was trying at the very least.

When March came along Bella spent her last three weeks in Forks in a state of perpetual packing, checking and rechecking all her belongings, and preparing herself mentally for the week she was going to be in Japan without any school to distract her. Charlie had steadily reassured her on more than a few occasions that she hadn't forgotten anything, and once, when no one was home and she was sitting in her room, she had allowed herself a single, quiet breakdown at the pressure of it all. It hadn't exactly been a pleasant time; and when Charlie, Renee, Phil, Jacob and a few others saw her off at the airport on March 20th, she had a very hard and unsuccessful time attempting not to cry.

Everything was only a little bit easier once she had actually landed in Japan –or more truthfully, once her interpreter had met her at the terminal gate. Ohtsuki Marimi; Ohtsuki-san as she had helpfully asked Bella to call her, was a woman perhaps in her early sixties, thin as a rail and about a foot shorter than Bella herself, with dark grey hair cut into a bob and bright brown eyes. Very quickly she established herself as an easy going, if anxiety prone woman, and explained all manner of interesting things to Bella quite rapidly as they made their way out of the airport and into a cab. Ohtsuki-san would be with her every day for her classes and one hour before and afterwards, and would leave Bella on her own for the weekends. She would only accompany Bella for her first month of education, by which time Bella was expected to have a grasp of the basics and Ohtsuki-san would switch to being with her for two hours after classes every other day for another month. Halfway through the car ride, Bella fell asleep to the older woman's cheerful chatter, and only awakened when the interpreter shook her gently once they had arrived at her new apartment.

Once her suitcase had been brought up to the room (the rest of her possessions would come within a few days), Ohtsuki-san patiently began to explain her dwelling to her, answering Bella's questions in a detailed, yet blessedly easy to understand manner. Bella's apartment was called a 1K, and the main room was 6 Tatami mats in size; that meant that it was about 200 square feet (though in actuality it was slightly smaller) and included an attached kitchen, bathroom, and a balcony, all incredibly tiny and space conscious. It came already furnished with a futon, a dresser, kitchen appliances, two bookcases, an old television and a low table, and Ohtsuki-san bypassed going over the finer points of the interior in favour of exploring the rest of the apartment building and the surrounding neighbourhood.

Unable to afford an apartment in Yurikawa, what with the prices increasing due to the demand from all the students, Bella had instead rented a cheap place in Toarushi and acquired a student semester train pass. The commute was ten minutes total of walking, another ten minutes by train (which came around every fifteen minutes), so Bella thought it was a fairly good deal. It would take some getting used to of course; not having her own vehicle at her disposal, but according to Phil gas and parking were both quite expensive over here.

Ohtsuki-san showed her where the apartment's laundry rooms were, since it had two, as well as where the maintenance shed, the garbage drop off and the landlord's office were located. Once she was satisfied that Bella knew how to find them again, the two of them set off to the shopping district, and it was then that Bella brought up the cheapness of the apartment in comparison to similar places in other parts of Toarushi. Ohtsuki-san surprised her by laughing nervously and stopping rather abruptly on one of the street corners.

"See that school, way down there?" She asked, pointing down the street to their right, and Bella nodded; though she had to squint it was so far off. "That is Suzuran All-Boys High School. I want you to promise me you will _never_ walk past there alone, especially not at night."

"Okay... but why?" Bella was confused as Ohtsuki-san quickly pulled her along, at a bit of a faster pace than before.

"It's so cheap here because no one wants to live near Suzuran, what with it being filled with the worst delinquents and idiots around. Toarushi in general has a high population of those types, so always carry a cell phone with you and don't go walking around alleys or parks carelessly." Ohtsuki-san was dead serious, and Bella's mind wandered to the store she had seen a street behind that sold pepper spray. "Yurikawa, by comparison is much better on that front. Toarushi has nearly twenty middle schools and at least twelve high schools, whereas Yurikawa has only three of each."

"Are they _all_ filled with... delinquents?" Bella asked worriedly.

"They all have some, but the all-boys middle school in Yurikawa is about half, with the all-girls being a quarter. In Toarushi about six of the middle schools, two all-boys, one all-girls and three co-ed are oriented towards the more... problematic. The high schools are what you should stay weary of. Suzuran and Housen are both in this area, but Kawada Second and the co-ed Kurosaki Industrial are the others you should avoid. None of the high schools in Yurikawa are very bad." Ohtsuki-san seemed to calm down minutely as she spoke, and five minutes later, when they reached the bustling shopping district, she was back to her previously happy self. "But there are also more policemen around, so that is good too."

With that new information stewing in her brain, Bella accompanied Ohtsuki-san through the shopping district for a few hours, picking up some cleaning supplies and food and getting a better grasp on the value of Yen as she did so. In addition to getting her used to the currency, Ohtsuki-san also informed her of the chance that she might be addressed by a slightly easier to pronounce nickname.

"Lots of Japanese learn English, but we still have trouble with some of the sounds, like the 'L's. When I went to University in Canada, I introduced myself with my full name, and then people started to call me Marie, since my name was troublesome for them too. This has happened to many foreign students who I have accompanied." Ohtsuki-san explained. "Marie was a nice name, but some people can be mean; be sure to inform me of anything you are called so I can curb it before it becomes irreversible."

"Oh, of course. I don't want to be called anything bad." Bella appreciated the warning; she had had enough tasteless monikers in her childhood to last a lifetime.

"Yes, well, let's just hope it doesn't come to that. I still cringe at the names some of my students have been given."

Then they went on to the train station that she would have to take every day in order to get to Yurikawa. Her guide stressed to her the importance of going to the Kanushi street terminal as opposed to the one on Ebara street, despite the extra three minute commute.

"You can never be too careful." Ohtsuki-san said evenly as she walked Bella through the process of getting in and out of the station. "Ebara is only two streets away from Suzuran, and all the students who have to commute use that one, it's even nicknamed 'Crows station' now. Kanushi is safer, if further away." Bella conceded that there were going to be a lot of things she would have to get used to, and simply agreed with her guide to use this particular terminal.

As the afternoon turned into the evening, Bella bade the older woman goodbye and settled down for the night in her new home. She unpacked her lone suitcase and found a place for the Rosetta Stone program on the bookshelves; she had been working through the stages with marginal success, as her few attempts at Japanese today had shown her. She tested all the appliances in the kitchen, wiped down the empty cabinets and plugged the fridge back in, and then she got to work cleaning the small balcony and the sliding glass door that led to it. When ten o'clock rolled around, Bella didn't have it in her to clean anything else, so she tiredly locked the door, read the instructions Ohtsuki-san had given her about futon maintenance, and fell into a deep sleep immediately afterwards.

Vvv

As the week wore on, Bella found herself settling down as the rest of her belongings were delivered to her and she began the task of making herself comfortable. Ohtsuki-san was only with her for a few hours each day, so in the time that she had to herself Bella went through the Rosetta Stone programs carefully and tried watching some television to practice her comprehension. In her opinion, she wasn't ready to go out on her own yet, so this was the next best thing. As it was only just getting into April, Bella still had to wear sweaters most of the time, so occasionally she would turn on her new, tiny space heater and relax, hoping the warmer weather would come along soon.

Being completely alone was something she was having a hard time getting used to, above all else. Fumbling through Ohtsuki-san's impromptu practice conversations she was handling well, navigating the town on her guide's insistence was getting easier, but being without either of her parents was an odd sensation to experience. Bella was doing her best to deal with it, but she knew that when she made the Skype call after the first day of classes she was going to have a much easier time about it all.

And then suddenly it _was_ the first day of classes. Bella woke up at seven a.m., an hour before the Orientation was due to start and she was expected at the school. She dressed in plain slacks and a sweater, packed her bag carefully with all her papers, supplies and a Japanese reference book, and then walked down to the courtyard to wait for Ohtsuki-san to show up. It didn't take very long, and soon the pair was off and heading to Kanushi terminal, with Ohtsuki-san nervously identifying the various high school uniforms that they spotted on the streets.

"That group in the black uniforms by the stop sign are going to Suzuran." Ohtsuki-san said in a low voice, making Bella peer at them curiously from behind her hair curtain. "Over there, those three bald ones, in grey, they're going to Housen. I hope they don't start anything."

The two groups glared fiercely at each other from opposite sides of the street –but did nothing more than grumble darkly and make rude gestures at each other while Bella and the interpreter walked past. They didn't encounter any more students as they boarded the train, nor as they walked from Setsura station to Ibaraki's Yurikawa campus. Through the opening ceremonies and subsequent tours of the facilities, Ohtsuki-san kept Bella well informed, although the American did manage to catch a bit of what was being said on her own. While her guide was on a lunch break, Bella dropped off her own paperwork and received some more; mainly maps, her class schedule and local venues she should visit, but there were a few that offered therapeutic or financial services as well. The day was relatively easy, and on the way back to her apartment in the evening Bella found that she was glad that she had chosen to attend Ibaraki.

"I'm so happy to hear that, Bella!" Renee gushed from the computer screen, Phil crowding in the same square and Charlie filling a second one. "Have you made any friends?"

" _Mom._ " Bella rolled her eyes but smiled. "It's only been my first day, and I was with Ohtsuki-san for almost all of it. I didn't even talk to the tour guides."

"Well, let us know when you do. We're always a... Skype call away, Bells." Charlie said this around a yawn. It was two o'clock in the morning where her parents were, roughly, but all three of them had stayed up in order to hear how she was doing right away. "I'm really proud of you."

"So are we, Bella. You just do your best and don't hesitate to call. I put the Skype app on my phone, so I'll always have it with me. It's too bad plane tickets are so expensive right now..." Bella sniffed and then wiped hastily at her eyes. She told them about the rest of her week and how she was making out, a little bit more about Ohtsuki-san and the school system (which all three of the adults found interesting) and her forays into Kanji script that were ending horribly. Bella didn't want them to worry though, so she decidedly left out anything pertaining to 'local delinquent schools' and the most recent thing Ohtsuki-san warned her about; the numerous biker gangs in Toarushi.

The call ended a half an hour later, when Phil nearly fell asleep on Renee's shoulder and Charlie unknowingly dribbled hot coffee all over the table. Bella promised to call again in two weeks or so and then hung up, leaning back to sit against the wall and closing her eyes, not even aware when she fell asleep still sitting up.

Vvv

Two weeks soon turned into two months, and Bella was both enjoying and dreading her classes in equal measure, in the way only college students can manage. Ohtsuki-san's warning had indeed come true very quickly, and now Bella had to deal with being referred to as 'Isobe' by 3/4s of the people she talked to; to her relief, the name meant 'seashore' and it was only odd to be called that because it was normally a surname. As well, all her teachers were sympathetic to her being new to both the country and language; otherwise she might have had a lot more difficulty than she already did. She had picked up the basics rather easily, but was having trouble with pronunciation and spoken sentence composition even as she wrote in Hiragana with ease. In other words, most conversation was not beyond her anymore, but it was slow going for the most part.

She had taken a student job position as well, during her three free hours in between classes, where she ran back and forth from the Registrar's office to the printer and delivered said papers to whichever classrooms they needed to go to. She had wondered idly once, about why the printer was two floors up instead of in the room with them, and had only received a complicated explanation involving building codes in response, most of which had gone over her head. Even so, it was going to keep her in shape and allowed her to practice her reading, so she wasn't going to complain over oddities.

Then, in the blink of an eye it was the day of Ohtsuki-san's last assigned time with her. Bella had grown to like the older woman in their weeks working together, and before the interpreter arrived on the bright May Friday, Bella had gone out and purchased a gift for her in order to show her appreciation. The first hour passed quickly, it was mainly the two of them walking to and back from the shopping district and Ohtsuki-san correcting her grammar every so often, and then for the second hour Bella invited her inside for a cup of tea and a full-Japanese practice talk. It went well, to Bella's surprise, and at the end of the day she presented Ohtsuki-san with both the small basket of peaches and the soft, embroidered handkerchief she had picked out, and received a warm hug as thanks.

Vvv

Bella was now truly on her own, and as if to distract herself from that fact she started working at the Registrar's even after her classes had ended. It wasn't _just_ because she was lonely that she decided to put more hours in though. Living alone in a foreign country had put a few things in perspective for Bella, and one of them was the cost of food.

Since moving to Japan, Bella had needed to change what she ate if she wanted to stay under budget, though that was tempered a bit by the fact that her parents had set her up on the school's meal plan. Regardless, she still needed food on the weekends and whenever she got tired of the cafeteria, so she had drawn that budget up _herself_ , and it was one that she was going to stick to religiously. Besides money for groceries, it allotted 1000 Yen a week for eating out, which changed to 3000 Yen a week on her vacations, by which time she hoped to have a small stockpile of perishables to compensate. For the groceries, she couldn't buy bread much anymore, as the loaves were smaller and more expensive than back home, and she was also restricted on what fruits she could get. Fruit in many stores cost so much more here, so if she wanted cheaper stuff she had to know what stores to go to for it. Rice wasn't a problem for her to eat more of, neither was eating more fish or unfamiliar vegetables, but what Bella needed more money for was the _amount_ of food she ate. Since starting school, she was eating three square, hearty meals a day, and after a while that would be adding up. It was either buy a lesser quality bulk food or go hungry for a while, and Bella was going to make whatever sacrifices she needed to in order to stay healthy, so bulk food it was.

It was in this manner that Bella worked, went to classes, commuted and held herself together until the summer holidays, at which point she happened to glance at her calendar and realized rather abruptly that she had been living in Japan for four months.

Bella was startled by the length, not due to any homesickness or how she had adapted or even because of the now lessening culture shock that came with a better grasp of the language, but because in all those four months, not once had she broken down by thinking of Edward. Oh, she had thought about him; she thought about how she still hurt from the abandonment and she wondered on where he and his family were now and how they were doing. Occasionally she would even imagine what might have happened had Edward stayed with her, or come back after he had left. But with the new environment, all the hours in class or at work, the mindfulness of the new language, and with every person she met being someone new, Bella came home each night nearly unable to evoke any emotion when she thought about the vampire.

She wasn't proud of herself; she hadn't kept her promise to Charlie to forget about Edward. But she knew that she had come a long way, since even though the pain Edward had caused her would probably never go away, she had gone _four whole months_ without crying about him even once. She hadn't allowed despair to cloud the new light her ambitions gave her; she hoped that success would bring her the happiness she so desired.

It wasn't the worst mindset, but it did lack something crucial. It had carried Bella through her first term at a Japanese University, through the ups and downs of studying, all the people she had met and the fears she experienced. So, once she let herself relax after four months of subsisting on determination and rice, once she loosened the high standards she was holding herself to and sat down in her new home with nothing left to obsess over, Bella crashed. Accumulated stress, anxiety and late nights came to a head all at once and she practically slept for two days straight; and on the day she woke up she felt as refreshed and relieved as she never had before.

This was when she met one Kawachi Tesshou.

Sleeping for two days can be good for a lot of things, but for a stomach used to a lot of food on a regular basis, it was not. Bella checked her bank balance, and decided that today she would go out to eat; she hadn't taken that luxury for well over a month after all. Of course, in Toarushi there were a limited number of options for her to go to at eight o'clock on a Sunday night, similar to how it had been back in Forks. Putting her trusty (and as yet unused) pepper-spray in her bag, and changing into a set of clothes that would better handle the humid heat, Bella set out towards the shopping district, keeping her eyes peeled for any open diners and bypassing the roadside stands. After about ten minutes of fruitless walking, Bella noticed something out of the corner of her eye.

Someone was behind her, and though it wasn't likely, Bella's paranoia said that she was being followed. Something else that living alone (and single) had put back into the forefront of Bella's mind was the possibility of... unwanted advances, of which there had been one or two so far. Hence the pepper-spray, and when she glanced behind her when turning the next corner, whoever it was sure didn't look like a random salaryman walking home from work. Keeping that in mind, Bella sped up to a brisk walk to test it out, and inwardly screamed when the person behind her sped up as well.

Bella discretely placed a hand on the spray can in her bag, gripping it tightly as she continued her brisk pace. Down two more streets and around three more corners she could still hear footsteps behind her, and she was just about ready to pre-emptively take the can out in the open when she saw a light ahead of her; a walk in ramen stand not twenty feet away.

Bella nearly ran to the stand and ducked inside quickly, peeking out the window but not seeing anyone at all in the street. Had she imagined the whole thing in some kind of anxiety induced hallucination? Bella glanced out the window again before a voice from further inside the shop made her jump.

"Can I help you?" Bella jolted and spun around, alarmed; but the stand was empty aside from the man around her age standing behind the counter, one eyebrow raised and leaning his arms on the laminate.

"Y-Yes, sorry. One... miso pork ramen, mild, please?" Bella was proud of herself for responding without stuttering much, even though she had needed a moment to take a calming breath. Her sentence composition had improved drastically since April, and now she stumbled mainly on the pronunciation of less familiar words. She was still hopeless at reading Kanji, but at least if a person spoke at a reasonable pace she could comprehend eighty percent of what they were saying. The man nodded and set to work, so Bella sat down at one of the bar stools, propped her head up on her palm, and scrutinized the cook.

He was probably three or four inches taller than her, and more than a few inches broader in the shoulders, almost reminding her of Jacob in the way that the Native American teen had been growing before she had left. He had two scars on his face, both a mottled pinkish-white; one that ran from his temple to his jaw and another that bisected it and ran across his cheek, and his hair was short but bright blonde and held away from his face with a headband. He was wearing a white wife beater and an apron over his slacks, and had colourful tattoos that covered three quarters of his arms, all done in vibrant blues, yellows and reds, and in the traditional Japanese art style that Bella had become accustomed to seeing every now and then. As he chopped and fried and began to assemble her order, he glanced up at her and grinned.

"New around here? I haven't seen you before." He offered conversationally, informally, eyes returning to his preparing after a second. Bella shifted so that she could keep her chin on her palm and smile at him at the same time.

"I have been here since March... going to school, in Yurikawa." She replied carefully. "I am from the United States."

"An American, huh? Interesting." The cook went on amiably. "Your Japanese is good."

"Thank you." Bella said, smile growing on her face. This was just what she needed; a nice, easy conversation with someone who wasn't expecting anything from her. "Are you in school as well, Cook-san?"

The man laughed unexpectedly. "Ah, no, I dropped out after middle school. This idiot's better off working."

"Do you enjoy it?"

The man paused, in both his cooking and in his quiet chuckles. "Yes." He said eventually. "Especially when friends come to eat here, no matter how annoying they can be. That's the best feeling I can get." He slid the noodles into a bowl, poured the broth in and laid the toppings and chopsticks on carefully, and after a minute he handed her the steaming bowl. "On the house."

"Oh, no, I couldn't," Bella reached for her wallet, but the cook grinned crookedly and waved it off.

"It's rude to refuse a gift, ne? Besides, you probably need it after that _hageatama_ scared you like that." Slowly, reluctantly, Bella complied, the unfamiliar word easily discerned in context. She must have looked troubled, because the cook leaned against the counter again. "Maybe tell me your name instead?"

 _Smooth._ Bella thought wryly. She had read about this sort of thing in romance novels, but having it _happen_ to her was both hilarious and... oddly flattering? "Swan, Isabella. But I being called 'Isobe' for whoever has trouble with pronouncing my English name."

"Nice to meet you then, Isobe-san. Kawachi Tesshou." Here, Tesshou extended a hand across the counter for her to shake. "You said 'I being called', did you mean 'I've been called'?"

Bella blushed in embarrassment, but nodded swiftly, actually grateful for any pointers she got. She was a tad surprised that the cook so easily called her by her first name, regardless if it was a nickname; from her experience it was a bit difficult for those who met her to get over that. "Yes, thank you, Tesshou-san."

Bella decided that a little embarrassment was worth it if she was able to make someone smile like Tesshou did.


	5. Chapter 5

**Of the Skull and the Seashore**

By: Yidkirkin of the Warhammer

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Is anyone even reading this? Oh well, here you go anyway.

WELP, FRANCHISE EVERYONE KNOWS, FRANCHISE NO ONE CARES ABOUT SPOILERS?

Bella spent a good amount of the summer holidays holed up in her apartment, cleaning and reorganizing things back to her satisfaction after her burn out had thrown everything into disarray. The fact that it was sweltering outside, a record breaking summer in fact, only encouraged her to stay within the confines of her shaded home. Sometimes, usually at night, Bella would make a batch of iced tea and lean out over the balcony, and she would watch the occasional biker drive by and wonder how they could stand wearing all that leather. A lot of the time it made her laugh just thinking about it, and she always got amused, but friendly comments from the people who lived below her whenever she met them in the laundry room.

With more time to herself, Bella had also done a number of things on her checklist that she hadn't been able to before. She stayed up late to have an extra long Skype call with Jacob, went out window shopping with some of her friendlier classmates, and even tried several recipes out from the cook book she had found under her sink. Her attempt at Natto had given her food poisoning, but she could at least say she had done it. It was a moderately productive couple of weeks, more so because it gave Bella the chance to fully wind down and collect her bearings.

So when Bella pulled on a light shirt and swept out the door, heading for Tesshou's restaurant for an early dinner, she wasn't going there because she was bored or because she needed a distraction from thinking about Edward, or even because she was necessarily hungry. Bella was heading back to the restaurant because even after all that she had accomplished personally during the break, she still felt an almost unbearable feeling of loneliness. Tesshou had been incredibly easy to talk to, almost even easier to speak with than Jacob or her own parents... he was certainly more of a conversationalist than Edward had been, and the talk had been _so nice_. Bella was lonely after four months in Japan, no one could blame her for wanting a bit of easy conversation to lighten that feeling.

And when she entered the restaurant to find it once again devoid of patrons, but with a single chef still working –one with bright blond hair and vibrant tattoos –Bella couldn't stop herself from smiling.

"Isobe-san, here to get away from another _hageatama_?" Tesshou asked from behind the counter when he caught sight of her, drying his hands on a spare towel and turning to face in her direction. Bella sat in the same seat she had the previous time and reached up to grab a menu from the higher counter top in front of her, inwardly resolving to look up the meaning of the word if only to satisfy her own curiosity.

"No, I'm here for the food this time, Tesshou-san, but I appreciate the concern. Rest assured, the pepper spray in my purse is just waiting to be used." Out of the corner of her eye, Bella saw the cook wince slightly, and couldn't help but let out a soft laugh. Tesshou shot her a questioning look and she shook her head. "Nothing. How have you been since I was last here? Oh, and I'll try a shoyu ramen this time."

Tesshou nodded and set to work immediately, running his knife through the motions of slicing as if he had been doing it his whole life –which for all Bella knew, he had been. "I've been doing alright. Nothing much to say, really, just a lot of cooking. My boss here thinks I'm his apprentice or something, so I've been busier than usual even with less customers to feed." Tesshou frowned and sliced one of the radishes a bit too roughly –so that half of it flew out and across the kitchen space –and Bella chuckled lightly at the red hue Tesshou's face turned. He paused, took a deep breath and then seemed to calm down marginally. "How about you? College... well, I guess you've been on break?"

Bella nodded. "Yes, just getting myself sorted. I go back in a week and two quarters."

"A half, a week and a half."

Bella blushed again. "...right. Thank you." Bella fell silent as the –older? Younger? –man slid her noodles into the decorative bowl beside him, soon followed by the broth and the rest of the toppings. Tesshou, unbeknownst to Bella, was very quick when cooking for one. The cook slid the bowl over and then, after looking around cautiously, reached underneath his side of the counter and pulled out a stool of his own, which he promptly sat on.

"What are you going to school for? I don't think I asked before." Bella forewent her dinner for the moment, hoping that the conversation might give it time to cool down so she could avoid a scalded tongue.

"I'm taking a TEFL course along with a Japanese language course. I want to... be an English teacher here." Bella smiled almost shyly; she hadn't admitted _where_ she wanted to teach out loud to anyone yet, but she really did like living in Japan a lot more than Forks. She had decided before the start of the summer that she would probably stay for at least a few years after graduation. "I don't know how long I want to stay though, I still need to get through my exams and my helper employment –er, I mean, assistant job! No, that's not it..."

"Maybe, Teaching Assistant?" Tesshou offered, grinning wryly.

"Yes, that's it exactly. But anyway, that's my plan, roughly. What –I mean, do you have anything besides cooking you want to do, Tesshou-san?"

Tesshou didn't answer right away, so Bella took the chance to sample the meal she was paying for. It was still hot, though not so much that it would burn her mouth, and she found that she liked it even more than the miso pork ramen she had tried previously. "This is very good." She said a little awkwardly when Tesshou's silence dragged on for longer than she thought was normal, but that seemed to snap him out of his trance.

"Thank you, uh... hm, something _else_ I want to do?" Tesshou shrugged. "Maybe take my bike across Japan? I dunno, I'm pretty happy where I am right now, I'm fine with sticking around for the time being. There isn't much beyond _here_ that I can think of, really."

"Nothing wrong with wanting to stay where you are." Bella said, lightly blowing on her broth before sipping. "I'm glad that I can live here at all, glad that I _want_ to live here. If things had gone any differently, I might not have, so I feel the same as you."

Tesshou looked as if he wanted to ask more –and to be fair Bella _had_ just hinted at some of her worst memories pretty nonchalantly –but she was grateful when he didn't.

Vvv

"-and then he falls asleep. Just falls over onto the keyboard! If I had known he was so tired I would've never insisted..."

Tesshou laughed easily at the expense of Jacob, the main character of her story. It was a few weeks after school had started up again for Bella, and though she had wanted to return to the restaurant for some time, her class and job schedule just didn't allow for it. That she was even here at this time of day was a little out of the ordinary –she had decided to stop in for lunch while her laundry was going through its wash cycle back at her apartment complex.

"I'd say he should've been more prepared for the call." Tesshou said, perking up minutely at the sound of voices beyond the restaurant entrance and settling back down when they faded into silence. Bella took a brief second to marvel at how young his face looked with his newly shaven head –although it did have the effect of accentuating his scars. "Making a nice, upstanding young woman such as yourself see something so shameful! What a travesty."

Bella laughed lightly at his teasing tone; over the course of her few visits she had grown somewhat used to Tesshou's sense of humour, helped along by the fact that she was always the centre of his attention. " _Shameful_ is when he tried to teach me to ride his bike and forgot to tell me the difference between the rear brake pedal and the gear change lever."

"He _didn't_." Tesshou laughed when Bella nodded solemnly over the lip of her nearly empty bowl. "Oh man, I can almost picture that."

"Well, I was lucky that I wasn't going very fast. I started to panic and ended up nearly crashing into a tree." Bella glanced at her watch and made a noise of comprehension. "Thank you for keeping me company again, Tesshou-san. But I need to get back before my timer runs out on the washer."

"Pleasure's mine, Isobe-san. Don't be a stranger." Smiling at him while leaving the right amount of money on the counter, Bella didn't waste any time in hurrying out of the door, not wanting to have her clean clothes taken out of the machine by someone else like the last time she had missed the end of the cycle. Briskly walking, she waved to a few of the shop owners she knew best but didn't stop to chat, and only taking the longer route back because it avoided 'crows station'.

Bella hadn't forgotten Ohtsuki-san's warnings about the various locations in Toarushi she should avoid –in fact she had actually grown more aware of them as the summer ended and the students returned to their schools. In the last week alone she had witnessed three fights break out in the streets between Suzuran and Housen students and had gotten a brief glimpse while on the train of some sort of large brawl under the overpass near the river –when she had mentioned that to Tesshou he had gained the oddest look about him and advised her to wait a while to take any walks near that area. Had she been in Toarushi during school hours instead of over in Yurikawa it was likely she would have seen it even more –her next door neighbour, Ono Tadashi, had an apartment that directly faced the street and from his balcony he saw all the lunchtime scuffles and class skippers that she didn't.

But like Ohtsuki-san had said, at the very least they had an increased police presence in town –she even knew the names of the five officers stationed at the nearest Koban.

"Good timing, Swan-san, it's just about to go off." Tamako called from her seat across the hall as Bella entered the laundry room, not even looking up from her periodicals. Bella moved over to the three machines she was taking up and, sure enough, that was when they stopped turning. She piled the two loads of dry clothes into her larger basket and then put the still wet towels in a smaller basin on top, as there was a rule against putting loads of towels in the driers for whatever reason.

"Thanks for keeping an eye on it, Nishimura-san." Bella said politely, hoisting her bag back over her shoulders and picking up the basket precariously, same as so many times before now. The older woman waved her thanks away as Bella moved back outside and up the side stairs to her apartments.

Bella had finally managed to get into a set routine about most of her smaller tasks, and now had started fine tuning their execution back into how she liked. Some things took a bit of getting used to –such as the need for her to learn how to install and use a clothes line for her towels –but other things went the exact same route as they had before she had moved here, like doing the dishes. She didn't think about it at all now, simply started putting things away; folding her pants and hanging up her shirts in the wardrobe, clipping her large towels onto the line first and then putting out the smaller ones. The only thing different about today was that there was a rather stronger wind picking up than usual –and while on the one hand that would be good for the time it took her laundry to dry, that also meant that as soon as she was distracted and a hand-towel slipped from her fingers, the wind caught it and blew it out and down into the back alley of one of the boarding houses below.

Swearing softly under her breath, Bella hastened to clip the rest of her wet laundry up before she threw her shoes back on and jogged down the stairs to go and retrieve the errant piece of cloth. It wouldn't be much of an expense to replace the small thing, but if she could avoid that then she might as well do so. The only problem was that the boarding house in question –the Umehoshi Boarding House –put up Suzuran students, and according to Ono-san the owners were more than a little... eccentric.

But Bella hadn't dated a vampire for nothing (oh, how strange that sounded to her now), and she wasn't about to get scared off by a couple of odd brothers or the students they housed when she had been on numerous occasions threatened with death, or worse.


	6. Chapter 6

**Of the Skull and the Seashore**

By: Yidkirkin of the Warhammer

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Eh, this chapter's a bit clunky, but what can you do.

WELP, FRANCHISE EVERYONE KNOWS, FRANCHISE NO ONE CARES ABOUT SPOILERS?

Bella knocked firmly on the front door and waited patiently, and when it was swung open a few minutes later her brain stalled for a moment in complete bewilderment.

"May I help you?" The towering... person asked, smiling kindly at her from just inside the threshold. They had slightly wavy and closely cut orange hair, brown eyes and a terribly muscular build, and were wearing bright red lipstick and small earrings along with a beige apron over a pink, flower print shirt. Bella stared for a long moment before she abruptly remembered her manners and she bowed shortly, hoping that she didn't look as out of depth as she felt.

"I'm sorry to bother you. My name is Swan Isabella, I live in the Araki Taro building just behind yours. One of my hand-towels fell off of my balcony and into your back alley, and I hoped I could grab it." The older person nodded understandingly and gestured for her to follow them into the house.

"Absolutely no problem, dear. I'm Umehoshi Mary, call me Mary-nee. Grab a pair of the house slippers and I'll take you right through to the back door so you can get it." The woman told her easily, closing the front door while Bella toed off her running shoes and stepped into a pair of the green slippers.

"Thank you, I appreciate it." Bella looked around curiously as she followed Mary through the main hall; they passed by the entrance to the dining room, the kitchen, a bathroom and a narrow staircase that presumably led up to the student's bedrooms, and then into a mud room full of coats and dirtier shoes.

"I'll wait here while you grab it, hun." Mary told her, holding the back door open so she could step through. It only took a minute to find the cloth –it was snagged on a nail sticking out of one of the wooden telephone poles near the garbage bins –and when she did she quickly moved back inside to get out of the cooling air.

"Thanks again... Mary-nee. I didn't want to have to replace it so soon." Bella told the owner(?) of the boarding house gratefully. Mary laughed and waved the thanks off not unlike how Tamako tended to.

"I couldn't just say no, dear. Would you like a cup of tea before you leave? I've seen you around the neighbourhood before but never managed to say hello properly." Bella thought the offer over.

"If you aren't busy..."

"Not at all! Those ne'er-do-wells don't get dinner until six, so I have a lot of time until I need to get started." Mary told her. "Come now, sit with big sister and tell me about yourself!"

"Alright then, I'd love to." Mary smiled approvingly and took her back down the hall and into the kitchen, where she directed Bella to sit at the far end of the counter while she started on tea.

"So tell me, Swan-san, where did you move from? Your name is obviously foreign if you don't mind my saying so." Mary asked, leaving the kettle on the stove and going to cut up some fruit in the meantime.

"I'm originally from the United States, I've only lived in Japan since March."Bella told her. "I lived in California at first, and then in Washington State before I came here to go to college."

"So you're at Ibaraki? An old high school friend of mine is a professor there, Hamada Yuuto?"

"Sorry, I don't know them." Bella said. "I'm taking a TEFL and Japanese language course –our department is one of the smallest, and has the least crossover with other departments."

"Oh, that's fine, just thought I would ask. Why did you choose to go to Ibaraki? It's certainly not the only school in Japan with those kinds of courses."

"Ah, it was a combination of things really." Bella watched Mary bustle around and tried to relax, though she had never had an easy time of that when around people she didn't know well. "The tuition was within my budget, there were a lot of cheap places to live nearby, and I was accepted with a scholarship. I had originally applied to schools in England, Australia and Germany as well, but Ibaraki was the best one which I was accepted to."

"My goodness, what a world traveller you could've been. " She teased, smiling in amusement. "I've never been outside of Japan myself, but I'd like to visit Paris someday. "Mary caught the kettle as it started to whistle and deftly prepared the pot of green tea. After a minute she lifted the pot in one hand and the plate of fruit in the other and turned towards Bella. "Could you grab three mugs out of that second cupboard, Swan-san?"

"Of course."

By the time Bella had balanced the mugs satisfactorily and stepped through the other door into the dining room, Mary had set up the pot of tea and the plate of food on the table and pulled out a chair for herself and Bella. They weren't the only ones in the room though, as a man about the same age and build as Mary occupied the chair opposite to the one Mary directed her to. Bella placed the mugs down carefully and took her seat just as the man huffed and folded up his newspaper with a flourish, scowling as he did so and shaking his head.

"What's the matter, Masashi?" Mary asked, pouring the tea and pushing the first mug towards Bella.

"I put a bit of money on the Swallows, but their games aren't looking too good. Who's this?" Masashi stared pointedly over the tops of his glasses at Bella. "Not one of your weirdo friends, I hope."

"Don't be rude!" Mary admonished, giving him the third mug of tea. "This is Swan Isabella, she lives over in Araki Taro. I invited her for tea because we haven't met properly yet."

"Hm. Good to meet you then. I'm Umehoshi Masashi, I own this idiot-house. Let me know if any of our boys ever give you trouble."

"I'll be sure to." Bella told him, receiving a firm nod from him in reply.

"So, Swan-san, Toarushi must be very different from the USA. How are you finding it after a few months?" Mary asked in the small pause after Bella had spoken, glaring at Masashi until he snorted and started drinking his tea.

"Yes, it's really different. Back in Forks it rained nearly every day and was a lot colder on average. In Phoenix it was the opposite; sunny skies and sweltering heat. I like the weather here a lot better." Bella took a moment to taste the tea, and immediately complimented Mary on the kind she had chosen. "And Forks was a pretty small town, so I'm enjoying having more places to go, not to mention being in a generally safer city."

"Safer? Have you _seen_ this town, kid?" Masashi interrupted, unperturbed by the smack to the head Mary delivered a split second later.

"Well, Forks may not have had as many delinquents, but it wasn't a safe place at all." Bella said neutrally, smiling at the exchange between the siblings. "So far, at least I haven't had to fear for my life, so I'm counting this place as higher on the scale."

" _How_ _about_ we get back to _your stay_ , Swan-san!" Mary cut in; glancing at Masashi's reddening face. "You said you were enrolled at Ibaraki in Yurikawa, are your classes going well? What kind of job are you hoping to get once you graduate?"

"I'm doing well in all of my classes –better than I thought I would in fact. I have a bit of trouble still with Kanji, but I'm working on it in my spare time so I think I'll get the hang of it by the time I graduate." Bella said, drinking a bit more of her tea while she thought of what to say next. "I'm hoping to be able to live in Japan for at least five years after I'm done at Ibaraki –as an English teacher. I've visited a few schools through the program and I'm thinking of applying at a middle school around here."

"What a great goal to have, and already figured out at your age." Mary said while smiling, but then she looked around at the room and shrugged. "You don't see that too often around here, though it is understandable. 'I'll figure it out once I get a part time job', 'who cares, I'll just coast along', even worse is when we hear about some of our former boarders joining up with the bad kind of Yakuza or going to jail."

"You can tell which ones are going places, though you have to know how to look." Masashi interjected, and Bella focused on him. "Pay attention to the fights, do they bring a knife to a brawl? If they're in one of those street gangs, do they respect both the ones above and below them? Are they sentimental about their school or friends, do they have one girlfriend or several or none... do they wear leopard print boas in public..."

" _Masashi_!" Mary cried, scandalized. "That was only once and you know it! I was still getting the hang of it all! Don't listen to a _word_ he says, Swan-san, he's a liar and a scoundrel!"

"Don't listen to a word _this idiot_ says, Swan-kun, you'll be better off for it." Masashi imparted sagely, getting to his feet even while Mary looked ready to retort. "Alright, I'm gonna take De Niiro for a walk. See you around, kid."

"And good riddance!" Mary said vehemently, and Bella couldn't help but break out into slightly giddy chuckles at the woman's expense. "I'm sorry about him Swan-san, he's been stressed lately with having to get a new batch of boarders..."

"It's fine, I liked him." Bella assured her host.

Bella stayed for about a half hour more before taking her leave, and ended up promising Mary that she would stop by once every so often to talk and have tea, as she had actually enjoyed having someone new to talk to who was so close by. The rest of her day was spent at home, waiting on her still drying laundry and studying for one of the tests that was coming upon her in a class she wasn't as successful in as she would like. These lazy days were what she really liked best, she thought as she watched another leather clad biker drive by in a hurry –it was days like this that really made it all worthwhile.


End file.
